“You turned it around, Jim.”
“No, I didn’t…”
June didn’t want to argue. She just turned and left, closing the door behind her.
How the fuck did I just lose June?
Before I could even fathom what just happened, there was another knock.
“June?”
“It’s Merry,” Merry said, opening the door. “June’s going to take me home.”
“Wait!” I said, but Merry didn’t wait. She left and the door closed again.
Lynette was next. “I’m leaving, too, Jim,” she said. “Kris should be back tomorrow. Have her call me.”
“Lynette! Please bring everybody back here!”
“They are leaving, Jim!”
“Get them, please! I don’t want this!”
Lynette looked at me for a moment and then left. I didn’t know if she was going to get June and Merry back, or if she was going to just leave.
About five minutes later, June came back into the room alone. “What do you want?”
“Can you explain to me what was happening in the shower?”
June stared at me for a few moments. “We just did a long workout outside, doing the moves that Lynette recommended. Merry and I wanted a shower, but I figured that using the upstairs one together would be too close. Merry never saw the downstairs one, so I showed it to her. She ran over and turned off my hot water, and I did the same to her. She was throwing a face cloth at me and you came into the shower, all hot and bothered.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded.
“Why didn’t you ask either of us?” June countered.
“June, Merry is very special to me. I don’t want anybody hurting her. I thought you might be taking…”
“Taking advantage of Merry?” June said. “That’s why I can’t live with you any more. You really think that I’d do that to that wonderful girl? I know how you feel, and we have a rule, don’t we? If somebody wants to do something with somebody else, and there are partners involved, then the partners have to approve. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah…”
“Do you think I’d violate that rule? Have I ever done so?”
“Oh, I’m such a fucking idiot! Lynette tried to tell me that I was going off the deep end, and I wouldn’t hear it. What’s happening to me?”
June no longer looked confrontational. Instead, she looked maternal. “You really miss her, don’t you?”
I got out of bed, and hugged June. I don’t know how long I cried on her shoulder.
I said, “I’m sorry” to June, Lynette, and Merry, in that order.
Merry was the most confused of all. Her hair was still wet from her interrupted shower.
“Merry, can I make it up to you?” I asked.
“You missed Kristen, so you got mad at June?” Merry said, confused, without answering my question.
“Love makes you do stupid things,” I admitted.
“Make it up, how?” Merry asked.
Conversations with Merry were seldom linear.
“Do you want to finish that shower?” I asked her.
“Downstairs?” Merry could get linear when she was interested in the answer.
“Downstairs.”
“That’s cool. It’s like in school!”
“Do you want to finish it?”
“With June?”
“With June.”
“All right.”
I watched June and Merry head out of the apartment with fresh towels. Kristen had a nearly complete set of shower supplies down there, with a closet that had refills and replacements as necessary.
“Want to join them?” I asked Lynette.
“Not a good idea,” Lynette said.
“Huh?”
“You made Merry afraid of you today. You’ll need to wait. Trust me, Jim.”
I nodded. “I’m such an asshole.”
“It makes you more human.”
“I don’t want to be a human asshole. I want to be a regular guy.”
“You have Kristen. You’ll never be a regular guy. Even if you couldn’t play a note.”
“Thanks, Lynette.”
“Tomorrow, I’m Pussy Slave.”
“Not if Merry is still here.”
“Yes, Jim, but it’s Kristen’s decision.”
I ignored Lynette’s implication. “Do you think that I’d scare Merry?”
“Kristen usually seems to have a sense of what needs to be done at the right time. Camille is smart and is also like that, most of the time. Your friend Patty seems to have a perfect record. I know how lucky you are, Jim.”
“Lucky Asshole?”
“Those three people are your anchors. None of them are leaving you. Camille is going to New England, but she’ll be with Kristen’s brother. Patty is working at the pizza joint. Without those friends of yours, you are starting to fly off in all directions.”
“That’s poetic,” I said dejectedly.
“I wanted to be a teacher or a dancer. Kristen has me going to school and majoring in business. What do I know about business?”
Lynette changed the subject, I noticed. I think it was a good idea.
“I think Kristen has plans for you,” I said.
“She has plans for you, too.”
“Oh?” I laughed. This wasn’t news to me.
“You are going to live your dream. You will be bigger than the Beatles, and Kristen is going to be there, saying, I was a part of this.”
“Success in music isn’t a certainty.”
“You don’t know Kristen very well. You thought you were trying to manipulate her a couple of months ago, but she’s manipulating you to get her to be a part of your success. You are thoroughly in her clutches and she won’t let go. I tell you this because I love her as much as you do.”
“I know how much you love her,” I said, softly.
“The cheerleaders never had as good a friend as you,” Lynette said.
“How does that follow, Lynette? Everybody loves the cheerleaders.”
“Camille told me what you did with that nerd. You pointed out Sherry to Camille. You’re the only heterosexual male that attended the lesser initiation that didn’t try anything with the cheerleader he was sponsoring.”
“Sherry was just a friend.”
“We intentionally put her in a vulnerable situation with you, and you fucked up her initiation! You were supposed to take advantage of her, but instead, acted like the perfect gentleman. Camille was so nauseatingly smug about it that I would have liked to kill her. If Camille didn’t vouch that you were heterosexual, there would have been gossip.”
I laughed. “Sherry wouldn’t have appreciated me taking advantage of her.”
There was no humor in Lynette’s eyes. “Sherry would have taken it in all three holes from you, and paused for pictures at every point.”
I shook my head. “Some people have a weird sense of priorities.”
“You are the most wonderful man I’ve met, and yet you have an inferiority complex.”
“Who are you in love with, Lynette? Kristen or me?”
“Both of you.”
“You were willing to leave me before.”
“You’re not perfect, Jim. You’re the best guy I’ve met, though.”
I sighed. It was difficult to think when your heart was tugging you in every direction at once.
I didn’t meet Kristen at O’Hare.
It wasn’t my fault. I woke up in time. June was in my bed with me. She felt me stir, and whispered, “You awake?”
“Yeah,” I said, not realizing the mistake I just made.
“Great!” June said, happily. Her head descended on my prick, sending me into exquisite torture.